Touch That night, ten years ago The tall man holds the two boys’ smaller wrists with his large dry-skin hands. He walks with them onto his gray living room carpet and let’s go of them as he kneels before the young brown-haired boy. He smiles widely, showing his crooked yellow teeth. The younger boy repugnantly looks down at the man before him. “Do you boys want to play a game?” The man says as he glances from side to side at the two boys a couple of times like a black and white Kit-Cat Clock ticking. “Justin, why don’t you come closer. Here.” He reaches out for him and grips him by the elbow. The two boys silently stand side by side and watch the man playfully laughing. “I’ll be right back.” He flexes a smirk in the corner of his lips. He turns around and flicks the light switch off. His living room is turned in complete darkness. His large hand moves across Brian’s small framed-back and crawls around his shoulder and neck. With his other hand he combs Justin’s platinum blond locks from his front to back. Justin’s shinny blue eyes glance outside the living room window. The porch and frames are decorated with colorful Christmas lights. Outside, the thousands of lights from the houses nearby reflect the white snow-covered trees. “Go sit on the couch over there Justin, I’ll show Brian how to play first, okay?” He says nicely. Justin sits with his hands tucked in under his thigh and silently watches the other boy from his first grade class. Brown strands of hair falls in front of Brian’s face as he looks at the man’s dirty shoes coming closer. He slightly lets his mouth open and he glances up to look at the man’s dark eyes glaring at him. He slides both his hands along Brian’s shoulders and gently pushes him so he can lie down on his back. The carpet’s scratching roughly against his skin. “This is going to be our little secret.” The man kneels down beside Brian and slowly runs his hand down Brian’s underpants. “Come here Justin.” The little boy hesitates and slides down the couch with difficulty. “Come, it’ll be fun.” The man crooks another one of his unattractive smiles. He kneels down on the other side of Brian and waits for the man to speak. “This is how we play, watch.” Justin looks at the man’s head going down above the other boy’s stomach until he can’t see his face anymore. His body is tanned and sweaty like he just came out of a swimming pool. His mouth his opened and his eyes are closed and blinking at the same time. He makes this whimpering, moaning sound. “Wait for your mothers over there.”The man points and pushes both boys out the door into the cold night. Both little boys walk, leaving foot prints in the snow, the bright lights around them. Brian sits on the sidewalk, under a dimmed streetlamp and waits. The other blond boy sits beside his little-known classmate, placing his hands on his knees. They looked at each other for a moment, with big sad eyes, wanting to disappear forever into the cold winter sky.